His replacement, Tripathi, looked in ominous touch as he was dealing in fours and sixes, helping Hyderabad keep up the net run-rate. His good touch was evident when he swept ace spinner Ashwin, who had opened with the new ball alongside Boult, to the fence. Tripathi struck the off-spinner for two back-to-back fours and a six that drew loud cheers from the crowd. Tripathi was handing the same treatment to Boult but the latter had the last laugh.

Just as Tripathi was looking to take the game away from Rajasthan, Boult struck again as he was dismissed after scoring 37 off 15 balls. Tripathi’s intended upper cut off a slower one from Boult ended up straight into the hands of Yuzvendra Chahal at short third man.

Aiden Markram didn’t disturb the scorers much as he lasted just two deliveries for 1 run with Boult claiming his third wicket.

Travis Head and Klaasen then took over the proceedings to help Hyderabad recover. However, just as the partnership was threatening to look dangerous, it was broken with Sandeep Sharma dismissing Head (34 off 28 balls).

From then on, Hyderabad could never play with their usual flow as they lost wickets on regular intervals with Boult, Avesh and Sandeep making life difficult for the batters. Nitish Kumar Reddy, who has provided spark to Hyderabad this season, also struggled before being dismissed for 5 (off 10 balls) by Avesh.

Klaasen did well to score 50, striking four sixes in the process, but all Hyderabad could manage was 175/9 in 20 overs.  

Just before the match started, Hyderabad jerseys were more on show and the ones that bore the names of Head, Cummins and Klaasen were lapped up by the die-hard fans.

Cummins had also hoped that his big players would deliver and Klaasen didn’t disappoint. One of his sixes off Boult’s bowling was a standout. That showed his class as most of the other batters struggled to put the bat on the ball properly. The head was also not up to his usual standards.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Hyderabad 175/9 in 20 ovs (Klaasen 50, Tripathi 37; Avesh 3/27, Boult 3/45, Sandeep 2/25) bt Rajasthan Royals 139/7 in 20 ovs (Jurel 56 n.o, Jaiswal 42; Shahbaz 3/23, Abhishek 2/24).